Think I dress weird now? Look at me then...

I was 5 when my grandmother crushed my dreams of becoming a famous singer when she said: "Erin you can't sing." After crying myself to sleep that night, I woke up the next morning and decided I wanted to be an artist. Then at the age of 10, I decided I wanted to be a fashion designer. There it went back and forth artist, fashion designer, artist, fashion designer until 2001 when I discovered that I could be both! For my Fine Arts thesis, I made wearable art.

My line of wearable art created to address women's issues was called F Yu Couture. The title plays on the idea of feminism as a swear word. Lets face it, even in 2010, 9 years after I created the pieces it still is. More people than not, regardless of their education, have no idea what "feminist" means and cringe at the word. I won't divulge too deep into the subject but for the record a feminist is one that believes women deserve social, economic and political equality. That's all. I hope that all that I am acquainted with ARE feminists.

My favourite piece out of the series was the "Stay Away Coat" as seen below. I sewed the coat out of shiny black vinyl and punctured it with over 200 2 inch nails. The coat represents the daily "armor" a woman puts on. Don't cat call me. Don't hit on me. Don't hurt me. I'm thinking of pulling this one out for Friday and Saturday nights living in down town Toronto...

Other pieces focused on stereotypes and explored labels- sluts, prudes, the "Wonder Woman" (one who takes on the roles of homemaker, mother, wife, worker).

And only because I promised... Here I am in my couture- a dress defaced with text from Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale".

When I was a young, I made porn

Among other things. Most famously, I made a porn.

Recently I have been looking through art that I made 10 or more years ago. I have been painting since I was 6, and I went to Western for Fine Art. I have a lot of art. Incredibly, I have found my old work a great source of inspiration. My ideas were untainted then, perhaps more original. Some projects are even worth continuing or redoing.

Hand Job, my first video project created in 1999 is a porn spoof. It isn't particularly silly, in fact you will probably blush when you watch it.  It's embarrassing, which is why it works. I have questioned posting it. I tried to edit my name out of the credits, which are written in a font so perversely close to Comic Sans it makes me cringe. Sadly, I no longer have the original VIDEO TAPE that it was made on, and this poor digital copy refuses to let me edit it. So be it. In a way its roughness lends itself perfectly to amateur porn. So here it is, rough, rude and ridiculous- my stint in Porn.

http://www.vimeo.com/14590081

"Why would you waste vacation time on making art?"

I told a friend of mine tonight that I was going to spend a week of vacation at the cottage making art. He looked at me and said "Why would you waste vacation time on that?" I was shocked by the blow. Instantly deflated. Vacation time IS precious and I don't believe in spending a single day on "relaxing" or hangovers or other such things that my friends allocate vacation days to. I dream about travelling all year long. I yearn to seek out and discover new places. I don't own my own condo or have a nice car. I have invested all my free time and money into travelling. I have chosen to live life to the fullest and I don't regret it. If I could, I would spend a good many weeks per year exploring the earth. But today, TODAY, I have only three weeks per year. I have chosen to spend one of these weeks at the cottage with my mom creating art. We will head up with armfulls of canvases and paints, sketch books and pencils. We will listen to RECORDS circa the 1970's on the record player. We will swim and boat when it is hot. We will paint on the rooftop dock overlooking the lake, drink wine and watch art and horror movies in the evening. We will create.

Is this a "waste" of vacation time? It is not *my* average vacation. Part of me feels the pain of reducing the length of a potential trip to Argentina to accomodate my "art retreat". But I could NOT skip out on this trip. Taking a week to create art seems like less of a choice than a necessity. I NEED this week. I NEED to relocate the love I once had for painting. I NEED to make art for art sake.

Resurrection!

It's coming. It's time. The blog is currently being redesigned and resurrected. The Erin Askew blog will be host to many new brain farts very soon.